Joburg Super Kings book place in SA20 playoffs with win over Paarl Royals

JSK arrived in Paarl off the back of four losses and had to win to continue their SA20 campaign. The hosts -who were without David Miller in the batting line-up due to a groin injury sustained during the match - failed to chase 166 and JSK went through at the expense of the Durban Super Giants.

In the chase, Prenelan Subrayen got JSK on the board early when he cleaned bowled Asa Tribe. Fellow opener Luhan-dre Pretorius looked good for his 32 until he feathered an outside edge off the effervescent Imran Tahir, leaving the hosts 46/2 in the sixth over.

Dan Lawrence and Rubin Hermann combined nicely for 35 quick runs until the latter top-edged a pull off Wiaan Mulder, then Delano Potgieter was given out LBW for Tahir's second scalp. That put Paarl Royals under pressure with the required run rate over ten and their score 82/4.

Lawrence (45 off 29) was man alone for the Royals and struck a few mighty blows, but he was unable to find a willing partner as JSK continued to pick off wickets on the slow track. Without Miller, the tail end of the Royals' lineup buckled. Superb Subrayen picked up 3/14 in 3.1 overs, including the final wicket that cued the celebrations. 

Earlier, the Super Kings were in trouble early on. Captain James Vince looked for the big cross bat shot against Bjorn Fortuin on just the third delivery of the match, only to miss the ball and see his leg stump flattened.

Neil Timmers and Michael Pepper rebuilt nicely to bring up the 50 in the seventh over. But Pepper (27) went after a spinner Waqar Salamkheil and crunched a drive straight to a shortish mid on who took a superlative catch at close range, leaving them 50/2. 

Worryingly for the Paarl Royals and the Proteas, talisman Miller went off the park after injuring his groin while fielding. 

The wily Sikandar Raza then trapped Timmers (39) right in front with his mystery spin to leave JSK 74/3 at the halfway stage. Leus du Plooy and Matthew de Villiers combined well to keep the scoreboard ticking but the latter holed out at long on after a mis-cued lofted drive.

Du Plooy (54 not out off 27) took matters into his own hands and nigh single-handedly took JSK to 166/5. He bludgeoned 23 runs off the penultimate over, with the help of one six from Dian Forrester.

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